A/HRC/4/98* page 17 IX. RECOMMENDATIONS 72. In view of the situation described in this report, I make the following recommendations: (a) The Government and international security forces should ensure that international humanitarian and human rights principles are upheld in relation to the protection of civilians in armed conflict. This should include taking all necessary measures to mitigate and limit the risk to civilians during military operations, to ensure prompt investigations into civilian casualties and to pay compensation to the families of civilians killed and injured in the conflict. NATO is urged to establish a discretionary fund and place it at the disposal of national contingents to provide immediate reparations to civilian casualties of NATO/ISAF military action and their families. (b) Non-State entities involved in the armed conflict in Afghanistan are also called upon to abide by common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. (c) In view of the intensification of armed conflict in parts of Afghanistan, the adequacy of the mandate of UNAMA to protect civilians should be closely examined with a view to strengthening it where necessary. (d) The Government should increase efforts to apply a rights-based approach to the Afghanistan Compact. This should include appropriate disaggregated indicators to measure progress in poverty reduction for vulnerable groups and ensure participation of all sectors of Afghan society in the monitoring of the Afghanistan Compact and ANDS, particularly of groups suffering discrimination such as women, people with disabilities, nomadic groups and the chronically poor. Policies should include a strategy on employment creation for the most vulnerable in rural areas. (e) The Government is urged to address the failure of health-care services in rural areas to be accessible to many women: efforts to achieve a reduction of child and maternal mortality in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals should continue while urgent action should be taken to reduce customary and security obstacles preventing girls from enrolling in and completing primary education. (f) The Government should incorporate a rights-based approach to ANDS by harmonizing international reporting requirements under treaties such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights with the monitoring of the Afghanistan Compact/ANDS. This involves integrating international legal obligations with the equivalent ANDS targets in order to further delineate a clear framework of accountability for the Government and incorporate internationally recognized standards for measurement of progress in human rights and development. (g) The international community should continue to provide financial and technical support to the Government to conduct a full poverty and gender analysis of the impact of local-level development programmes; and, the Government needs to ensure that any conclusions are fully integrated into ANDS in order to achieve progressive realization of economic and social rights.